


Battle of the Ex's *Christmas Edition

by alleyholls



Category: Original Work
Genre: Break Up, Christmas, Complete, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Friendship, Games, One Shot, Short Story, relationships, sort of enemies to lovers i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23224036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alleyholls/pseuds/alleyholls
Summary: This is not your typical Christmas story. Here's why:Mia and Ethan used to be high school sweet hearts. But when Ethan's dad, a developer, threatened Mia's family about giving up their land so he could build houses, it tore them apart and made them enemies. They finished high school competing in the made up contest, 'Battle of the Ex's', where Ex's  from all over the high school compete in challenges to prove which one is the best.Now they're going to the same college, and stuck in the same dorm. Mia has managed to avoid Ethan, even going as far as to do her laundry at the local laundromat. Until Christmas Eve that is.A freak storm and loss of power leaves Mia trapped in the common room with Ethan and two others. Having still not forgiven Ethan, Mia suggests they continue on with the Battle of the Ex's Christmas Edition. A head to head competition to see who, once and for all, is the better Ex.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	Battle of the Ex's *Christmas Edition

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my wattpad page way back in 2014. Trying to see if posting my works on ao3 gets me back into writing! Hope you enjoy!

Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love the way the trees look covered in snow, and the frost that appears on my windows. Even though frost on my windows probably means they are old and need to be replaced, I still love it. I love sitting in my favourite chair, wrapped in a blanket, reading a good book while the Christmas tree lights flicker behind me. I love seeing cute little kids bouncing and happy, pointing out the gifts they wish Santa would bring them. All in all, I love the way Christmas makes me feel.

Until this year.

I've never missed a Christmas with my family. But this year, we got hit with a whole lot of snow, more than I have ever seen, making it hard for me to drive to the grocery store from my dorm, let alone drive more than two hours to be home with my family. My mom actually called me and told me she didn't want me driving home in this weather. So now I'm stuck in my lame college dorm while my roommate is off having good times with her family.

And to make it worse, a huge storm is minutes away from happening. It's supposed to bring us high winds, more snow, and ice. Ew.

You know, everyone always says Christmas isn't about the gifts, it's about spending time with your family. And they're right. I love spending time with my family, and I'm already missing them this year. But I also miss presents. It's only Christmas Eve, but I already miss sitting on the floor with my younger sister, opening gifts at six in the morning. There's really nothing better than seeing the smiles on people's faces when they open a gift that they've wanted for a long time.

I sighed, got up from my bed, and looked out the window. Snowing again. Great. 

"So I guess the storm is here." I said to myself. Then I grabbed my empty laundry basket and walked to my kitchen. I filled it with cookies, bread and nutella, water and juice, then added some candles a lighter and my book. I also put some gift wrapping stuff and gifts for my little sister in there as well. It's a routine I have, where I take a bunch of things that make me comfortable and happy, down to the common room. I just find it easier to get stuff done down there for some reason. So I grabbed by phone, key pass, and made my way to the common room.

*

My college dorm is actually a pretty small building, but it's new and has a whole bunch of upgrades then the other buildings on campus. For example, the elevator has a bench seat in it. Never seen that before. Also, each person living in this dorm has a key pass, that lets them enter, well, first the building, and also the private swimming pool, the common room, and then their dorm rooms. Kind of like a hotel. We were told it was set up this way to stop other people from randomly coming in other dorms. Personally, I don't think it works. They could just get their friends key pass. But whatever, as long as no one get's into my room, I'm fine.

I really enjoy the new features. My favourite thing about hotels was getting to enter my room by swiping my key. On our last family vacation, when I graduated high school, I stole the room key from my dad and stood outside opening, closing, and then opening the room with the key. There's just something weirdly satisfying to me when I swipe cards. Maybe that's why my parents wont let me have a credit card?

When I reached the door of the common room, I set my laundry basket full of stuff on the floor, and used my key to open the door. Then I held the door open with my butt, so I could reach down and grab the basket without letting the door close on me.

Our common room is like everybody's dream living room. On one side you have the 'game's area'. Filled with all kinds of board games, video games, an air hockey table and a pool table. Then on the other side it's like my personal dream. A wood fireplace, with super comfy big chairs and couches, and lot's of books. Despite it being a common room, I can always seem to relax and get work done or finish a book when I sit in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace.

It's even better to be here during Christmas time. Students get together to decorate the room and a big tree. The fireplace mantle has some lights on it, and festive candles. And when the tree lights up, its bright enough that you don't need to have any other lights on in order to see and do things.

I put my laundry basket on one of the chairs, and head to the bathroom at the back of the common room. The bathroom's are probably one of the only rooms in the dorm that you don't need a key pass for. Because why would you need a key pass to enter a bathroom? So it was a good call on the designers part to leave the key passes away from any bathrooms.

I finished up my business, washed my hands and went to leave. But when I came back out of the bathroom, I saw something, or more like someone, who would definitely ruin my Christmas.

Ethan. Browsing the books near my seat.

I quickly hid back in the bathroom where he wouldn't see me. What is he doing here? Shouldn't he be with his family? But then again, I should be with my family, so maybe he's in the same situation.

Five minutes later I peaked my head out of the bathroom, and Ethan was still there. This time playing what looked like Mario Cart on the gaming side. I closed the door and leaned my back against it. My heart was beating fast.

"Okay, Mia. You're going to take a deep breath, go out there, and ignore him." I told myself. 

Ethan and I have a bad past. Long story short, we dated in high school, and his dad, who is a developer, (You know, someone who buy's land and builds houses or stores on it.) wanted to buy the land that has been owned by my family for more than one hundred years. My family said no, (Obviously) but it started this big feud between Ethan's family and my own. I couldn't go to his house without his dad mentioning our land, and then Ethan started to take his dad's side, saying, "Why don't you guys just accept my dad's deal and we can put all of this behind us?" 

It was probably that line he said that ultimately broke us up. Then, someone in school who had a bad breakup, created 'Battle of the Ex's'. A competition made up of smaller competitions between Ex's who wanted to determine which one was better. So we took part in it. And tied. Yes. Tied. 

The competitions were things like:

-Who can answer this math question first  
-Who can run one hundred meters the fastest  
-Who can climb the rock wall the fastest  
-Who can solve this science question first

Basically, most guys would win, because girls are sometimes not as strong or fast as guys, and there seemed to always be more physical contests then strategy. But I myself am an athlete. I was on the volleyball, basketball and soccer teams during high school. So it was no surprise that Ethan and I tied. We're both pretty equal. Which is why we started dating in the first place.

I took a deep breath, and just as I was going to exit the bathroom and man up to my fear of seeing Ethan, the lights went out.

"What the hell?" I whispered. I happen to be afraid of the dark, so I was out of that bathroom before you could say my name. Which is Mia, and doesn't take very long to say, so I was out of there pretty fast.

"Mia, what the hell?" I heard someone say, but I was to busy freaking out. "Are you okay?" The person said, touching my shoulder and making me jump, forcing me to look at them. It was Jessica, my friend who also happens to be my dorm neighbour.

"What's going on?" I said.

"Well, the powers out." She said. "I knocked on your door to see if you wanted some hot chocolate, but when you didn't answer, I assumed you came down here. Which you did, so I was right." She laughed.

"Did you bring the hot chocolate down here?"

"I did. It's by your chair." 

"Oh perfect. Thank you." True to her word, the hot chocolate was placed neatly on a table beside the chair with my stuff on it. Jessica makes the best hot chocolates. She adds cinnamon, whipped cream and marshmallows.

"It's a good thing the fire is going, or we wouldn't be able to see anything." Jessica said, taking a seat in the chair beside me.

"Yeah, and it will give off heat if the power doesn't come back on soon." I said, sipping my delicious hot chocolate, and pointing my slipped feet towards the fire.

"Well, the generators should have kicked in by now." Jessica said. I could hear a hitch in her voice, letting me know that she was a little bit worried.

"Actually, no generators." A voice said behind us. I turned around to see a very handsome, very tall guy with his curly hair pulled away from his face by a bandana.

"Mason." Jessica gasped. "Where did you come from?"

"I was playing video games with Ethan." He jerked his thumb behind him, where Ethan was sat, watching us. 

Mason and Jessica broke up last week. She said it was mutual, but I feel like it was something a bit more serious.

"Wait, Ethan's here? When did he-" I held my hand up, effectively shutting Jessica up.

"Go back to the part about no generators." I said, trying to ignore Ethan's stare and focus on what Mason was saying. Of course I happen to see Ethan when all I'm wearing is an old sweater and track pants.

"The generator's are going for the yearly check up, basically. They send them in to make sure they're all good to last another year. They do it around Christmas time because most people are gone around now." Mason know's all the secrets to this school. He's a year older, and has been here longer. He's also kind of a teachers pet, according to Jessica.

"Well, then I guess I will go get some sleep in my room." I said, leaving my laundry basket and heading to the door.

"You can't." A new voice said. Well, I shouldn't say new. I'm very familiar with the voice. Ethan's voice. Deep and manly, yet smooth and calm. I didn't listen to him, and swiped my card anyways. But the light didn't go green, telling me I can open the door. I tried again. And again. And again. Still no luck.

"Why isn't this working?" I muttered, trying to force the door open.

"You need power to work the key passes. I've already tried to get out." Ethan said. 

"You mean, we're stuck in here?" Well, that is totally a flaw in the building design. They should have a backup way to open the doors in case something like this happens. Which it has, and now we're stuck.

"Afraid so."

"Great. Just great." I went back to my chair. 

"What are we going to do?" Jessica whispered to me. "Stuck in a room with our ex's, who would have guessed."

"This sucks." I whispered back. "I haven't even seen Ethan all year, and now I'm stuck in a room with him."

"We can hear you." Mason said. 

"Good!" We yelled.

The boy's went quiet but I didn't risk turning around to see what they were doing. I can't believe how this Christmas is turning out. First, I'm told not to come home, second, a huge storm hit causing, third, the power to go out and now, fourth, I'm stuck in a room with my ex. 

"This couldn't get any worse." I said quietly. Oh, but it can. Because as I said that, the fire went out. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no. Now what? It's going to get cold in here fast. And now it's so dark. We're stuck in here, we have hardly any food, and now no source of heat. This sucks!" I panicked, getting up to walk back and forth, back and forth. It's something people do when they're stressed, or thinking. Like myself right now. I'm stressed, and thinking of a way to keep warm and not die.

"Relax." Ethan said, shining a light in my eyes, then pointing it at the floor when I covered them. "We just need to get more wood."

"Oh? And where are we going to get that?" I said sarcastically.

"From in here." He says and pushes a bookshelf. At first nothing happened, but then the whole bookshelf started moving forward.

"I didn't see that coming." Jessica says.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

"It's a storage room."

"Why is the entrance to the storage room behind a bookshelf?"

"Well," Ethan starts. 

"It's not actually the entrance." Mason finishes.

"Can someone just spit it out and explain please?" I swear, guys have a harder time explaining things than girls trying to decide what shade of pink lip gloss to buy.

"The front entrance is actually through the workout room." Mason says. "The reason the door is a bookshelf on this side is because they needed more space for books, and also not everyone knows about it, so resident's can't waist the firewood."

"Well, then let's exit from the workout room!" Jessica yelled, already marching forward into the dark space.

"We can't." Mason said, stopping her with a hand on her shoulder, that she immediately shook off.

"And why not?"

"You need the key to open the door, from both sides." Mason says.

"Well, that's a little bit stupid." Jessica says, throwing her hands up and moving to stand back beside me.

"Well, what's in there?" I finally ask.

"Let's look." Ethan walks forward and shines his flashlight,- which actually just happens to be his iPhone, reminding me that I have the same phone, and can also use it as a flashlight - into the space.

"Ugh, you're slow." I said, pushing past Ethan into the space, using my own phone as a light. "Reminds me of the time I beat you in the one hundred meter dash during the Battle of the Ex's."

"And you're still afraid of the dark. Which reminds me of the time I beat you in the dark obstacle course. You know, I don't know why you're so smug about the games. We did tie."

"Yeah. We tied. Maybe we should have a re match. And they weren't games, they were competitions." I said, turning to face Ethan properly for the first time since we got trapped. His eyes were shadowed from the little light, making them look like a much darker blue than they really are. Being this close to him, I can feel his breath. Which, even though it may sound disgusting, smells like peppermint gum.

"We don't have anyone else to compete with us. It's not the Battle of the Ex's without other ex's."

"Mason and Jessica are ex's. They broke up last week."

"Wait, Mason, you were dating Jessica?" Ethan yells to him.

"Yeah man. But it was a mutual split." Mason yells back.

"A mutual split? You say that all you want, but the real reason is because you were just using me for sex, and when I didn't put out you got frustrated!" Jessica yells. And the real reason is revealed. I knew she was lying about the 'mutual split' thing. "Mia, I'm all for this Battle of the Ex's thing. Sign me up!"

"Well, I guess we're a go." Ethan said.

"Battle of the Ex's. Christmas edition." I say.

"What edition?"

"Christmas. None of us are with our family's, so we might as well celebrate somehow."

"Alright. Well, let the competition begin!"

*

Inside the storage room we found extra fire wood, matches, extra game controller's, a few chairs they had to move to put the Christmas tree up, and a bunch of weights and mat's from the workout room. Ethan and Mason started another fire while Jessica and I got stuff ready for the competitions.

"You know, I just thought of something." Jessica said while I placed out gift wrapping supplies.

"What's that?"

"You and Ethan both have cell phones. Why don't we just call someone and tell them we're stuck?" I stop what I'm doing and look up.

"You're right!" I scramble around for my cell phone, and turn it on. "Dang it! No signal. The storm must have knocked it out or something."

"This must be what it felt like fifty years ago when they didn't have electricity." Jessica says.

"They had electricity fifty years ago Jess."

"Oh."

"How did you get into college?" I ask.

"Beauty scholarship." She smiles, and runs a hand through her long hair.

I continue setting out the wrapping paper for one of the competitions, but I can't get what just happened between Mason and Jessica out of my head.

"Jessica, is there anything you want to talk about? Maybe Mason perhaps?" 

She shrugs. "I mean, you heard what happened. I think maybe he thought I would be easy because I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar. But I'm not like that. I mean," She get's really close to my face. "I'm a virgin."

I want to continue talking to her about this, but we're interrupted by Ethan.

"Are you girls going to continue chit chatting, or are we going to get this started?"

"Alright, gather round everyone." I say, though not necessary because all three of them are sat in front of me already. "Welcome to Battle of the Ex's, Christmas Edition!" I wave my arms around, trying to be like the showgirls on The Price is Right, who ever so gracefully wave their arms to show off the free products. Instead of showing off free products though, I was trying to show off the room, decorated with the stuff for our Christmas themed competitions.

"Can you explain, step by step, how to play this Battle of the Ex's thing, because I've never heard of it before." Mason says after raising his hand.

"Right. So, in Battle of the Ex's, everyone competes at the same time, well, depending on the type of competition. You're technically in pairs with your ex, so they're the only person you need to worry about. Between the two of you, whoever wins the most, will win the tittle. In this Christmas edition, there are three different competitions, each holiday themed. Because there are three, there won't be any ties. So try your hardest, and lets get started." I explained.

I pointed to the first competition, "This is the 'Gift Wrapper'. We will each have to wrap a box in one minute. This competition will be judge by us. I came up with a way that it works. Mason will judge me, and I him. And Ethan will judge Jessica, and she him. When the time is up, we will go to our persons gift, and rate from one to ten. For example, since Mason is judging me, he will rate how nice my wrapped gift looks, and then so on. The person with the highest rate wins. The only rule is don't sabotage anyone else's competition." 

We each got into positing near our wrapping station, and I set a timer for one minute on my cell phone.

"GO!" I yelled when I pressed start. Because I placed everything needed to wrap a gift out for each team, it made it a little easier to grab what was needed. 

I started by rolling out some wrapping paper, and placing my box on top of it. Then cut the paper off and used tape to adhere it to the box. I tried my best to fold it nicely on the side, but it was crinkly and I ripped a bit of the paper. Then I took a second to look at Ethan beside me who was already onto adding a name tag. 

"Shit," I whispered, reaching for a name tag and sticking it on. I wrote:

To: Dad  
From: Mia

Then I reached for a bow and managed to stick it on just as the timer went off. We all quietly got up to go judge our persons wrapped gift. When I reached Mason's present, I was pleasantly surprised. The corners were neatly wrapped, and he made his own bow. Not to mention his name tag was written in cursive. This is definitely a ten.

"Okay guys, when you know what you're going to rate the other persons gift, write it on a piece of paper, then we will reveal them one at a time. Like they do on Dancing with the Stars." I said.

"I'm ready." Jessica said, and the others nodded.

"Jessica, why don't you go first? Then Mason, then Ethan, then myself." I said, and she nodded.

"I gave Ethan a nine. It was neatly wrapped, and the bow was placed in a good spot, away from the name tag." She said, holding up her number.

"Well, Mia, I gave you a six." Mason said. "Your wrapping was very messy, but the name tag was cute." He said apologetically. Because Jessica gave Ethan a ten, and I got a six, it means Ethan won the first round.

"I gave Jessica an eight." Ethan said. "The wrapping was good, but there was no bow, and the name tag was messy." 

"And I gave Mason a ten because surprisingly he should be a professional gift wrapper or something. Everything about it was nice, and pretty." I said. "So, Ethan and Mason have won the first round. But come over here and we can get started on the second."

We came to a stop in front of a bare spot of wall. Or, it used to be bare. I put up a piece of wrapping paper the wrong way, so the white side was showing, and did my best to draw a reindeer, with no nose. I also coloured paper red, and cut them in circles for this contest.

"This is 'Pin the nose on Rudolf'. We'll be blindfolded, spun around, and then have to place the red nose as close to the correct spot as possible. The person closest wins."

"Sounds easy enough, let me go first." Ethan says, stepping forward. Because Jessica is his judge, she blindfolds him, spins him, and then points him in the right direction. Ethan stumbles forward until he hits the wall, then he runs his hand around, and places the red nose on the stomach of the deer. I hold in a laugh as he takes his blindfold off and see's where he put it.

"Well crap." He muttered, walking back to where Jessica was standing. "You might as well go next."

He doe's the same thing she did for him, and then Jessica moves forward slowly. When she reaches the wall, not banging her nose like Ethan did, she immediately places the red nose, and it lands on an antler.

"It's harder than it looks." She laughs, and hands the blindfold to Mason, who then blindfolds me and spins me around. 

I hadn't played this game since I was a little kid, but it was just as difficult as I remember. When I reached the wall, I felt around for the paper. Then I moved my hand to the right, where I knew the head was, and placed the nose. When I took the blindfold off, I found my nose landed on the neck of the deer. It wasn't perfect, but it was closer to the nose than Ethan, which means I won the second round.

Finally, it was Mason's turn. He didn't seem to spend any time contemplating where to put the nose. He just walked forward with his arm stuck out until the red nose stuck to the wall. He wasn't even on the paper.

"Ops." He said, but Jessica jumped up and downing, having won the second contest as well. 

"Well, looks like we're tied." Ethan says.

"Yeah. So whoever wins this next one will win." I said.

"What is the next one?"

"Well, we had to have a competition that combines a bunch of different skills, so it's like an obstacle course. We'll compete at the same time, each in our own little section, and the first done, wins." 

"Oh, like those games on Ellen where she has people come down from the audience and do stupid things to win a TV?" Jessica asks.

"Yeah, sorta. So, we'll start by decorating a 'tree'. Since we don't really have any trees we're going to just use boxes. Then wrap another present and set it under the 'tree'. Then set out some cookies for Santa, and last, fill a stocking with at least 3 things you can find in the room. I call it, 'Santa was here.'"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jessica yells. "Ready, set, go!" Wow, she really want's to win this thing. But I have a feeling that Mason is throwing the competition. Well, no. I don't have that feeling, because I know he is. He didn't try to pin the nose on Rudolf at all, and now he's lazily taping a set of lights to a box, and looking over at Jessica every few seconds.

Because I got distracted by Mason, I fell a few seconds behind, but I managed to get ahead when I wrapped my gift, saving time by not making it look perfect like Ethan was doing. I threw the gift under the tree, (which was really just beside the box with lights) and went to go put some cookies on the plate.

The cookies we were using were the ones I had brought down with me in my laundry basket. I knew they would come in handy. I took a bite out of one of the cookies and set it on the plate. The last step was for me to grab a few things to fill a stocking. The stockings already hung from the fireplace, put there from the other students who decorated for Christmas. I grabbed a game controller, an unlit candle from my laundry basket of stuff, and a coaster. Not ideal stocking gifts, but what are you going to do?

I was about to dump my stocking stuffers into the stocking, when a hand on my elbow stopped me.

"What are we doing Mia?" Ethan said, using his hand on my elbow to make me face him. 

"We're competing in a competition, that's what we're doing." I said, trying to turn around, but his grip got tighter, forcing me to stop.

"This is stupid. The whole thing was stupid. And I don't just mean Battle of the Ex's. I mean about the things with our families. Christmas is in less than thirty minutes. We should be sat next to a fire waiting for Santa to show up, not fighting against each other to win a stupid competition."

"You know Santa's not real right?"

"Yes, I know that. You're missing the point. I'm sorry about everything Mia, can we forget what happened and start over?" Ethan pleads. He has the puppy dog look in his eyes. From the way he's standing, I can see the fire reflecting in them.

"Are you just saying that to distracted me, so you can win?"

"No, I'm being one hundred percent honest."

"Well, in that case." I turn around and shove my stuff into the stocking. "I win!" 

Jessica comes running over to me. "I won too! But I didn't want to say anything because it looked like you were having an intense chat with Mr. Lover boy over there."

"Yeah. I should probably listen to what he has to say." I turn around, but Ethan's not their. "What the?" I look around, and then at the floor, and there he his, on one knee. "Oh my god, you're not proposing are you?"

He looks up. "What? No, I'm just putting more wood in the fire." Then he stands up. "Do you feel better after wining? Can we talk now?" He asks.

I move over and sit in my chair, and he follows, sitting in the chair beside me. Jessica and Mason have moved to the gaming side of the room, and I can see them talking in hushed voices, Jessica's arms moving all over the place as she tries to stay calm.

"I want to say I'm sorry for everything that's happened." Ethan starts. "I want to try and start over."

"I don't know if we can. What you said to me was pretty rude." 

"I know. I regretted what I said the moment I said it. I was going through a rough time. We all were. My dad was pressuring me to convince you to convince your parents that you should sell to him, and I shouldn't have done it, but I was tired of it being the only thing he talked to me about. It's not an excuse, but I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too. I may have overreacted."

"You didn't. So, what do you say? Start over?" He asks again.

"As friends?"

"As whatever you want us to be." By now Ethan had moved right in front of me, kneeling on the ground with his hands on my knees. I couldn't think properly. "You know, I never wanted us to break up."

"You didn't?" I whispered.

"No. And I tried to see you every day, but you avoided me. The truth is, I knew you would be down here tonight, so I came down. I pretended I was looking at books, hoping you would come out of the bathroom, see me and start a conversation. But when you didn't, and Mason arrived, I just agreed to play games with him."

"Have you been stalking me?" I tried to laugh, but it got caught in my throat.

"Kind of, but only because I love you." He froze, as did I. What did he say? When we were together, we never even said the L word. We both knew we were young kids in high school, probably not going to last till the end. We agreed not to drop it on the other person. But now he has, even though we are out of high school.

"You what?" I asked, even though I clearly heard him.

He seemed to gain some confidence. I could see his features change. The nervousness went away from his eyes, and his slightly shaking hands on my knees went still. 

"I love you. I always have. And ever since we broke up, all I could do was think about you. Think about when I would see you next in the hall. Or if we were ever going to talk again. And I guess, all I want to know, is if you love me to."

I took longer than necessary to answer him back. The truth is, I loved him too. And I never wanted to see him because I was afraid of how much it would hurt me if I saw him with another girl. I watched as his confidence fell away from his face, before leaning forward, wrapping my arms around his neck, and kissing him.

"I love you too." I whispered again his lips.

He laughed, stood up, and spun me in a circle. "Merry Christmas." He whispered as the clock on the wall hit twelve, then kissed me again.

"This has turned out to be the best Christmas ever."


End file.
